Worlds Apart

Worlds Apart
Part 3
By Mieren

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Duo didn’t have the luxury of waking up in a bed as Naruto had. Instead, he found himself in a tree, lying across a massive branch with bark pressing into his exposed skin. He assumed it was where he had landed after the blast, not noticing the two people nearby. He might have been a trained terrorist, but they were trained ninja intent on remaining hidden.

Groaning inaudibly, he raised one hand up to his throbbing head, a bit confused when his fingers encountered spiky locks. He bolted upright in alarm, ignoring the blinding pain it brought to his head. His braid was gone!

“My hair!” he yelled.

“Shut up, dobe,” someone near him hissed.

“Your hair is fine, Naruto,” an exasperated woman said, coming into view. Duo blinked at her odd clothes and shockingly pink hair.

The combined shock of sudden company, the girl’s strange appearance and being addressed by the wrong name were enough to temporarily stun him to silence. The soldier in him forced him to respond to whatever situation he found himself in, and he started taking mental notes.

The three of them were in a monstrous tree, easily a hundred feet in the air. His hair and weapons were gone and he seemed to be wearing some ridiculous orange jumpsuit. He glanced around, noticing that the two other people were roughly his age and both had odd-looking knives drawn. They seemed to know him and until he knew a little more, he’d play along. He’d spent enough time around Trowa’s sister to recognize a throwing knife when he saw one. He never did think the brunette was entirely sane to stand as a target, and he definitely didn’t want to try it for himself.

“Where are we?”

“Where do you think, dobe?” the boy answered in a monotone. Duo grinned. It was just like dealing with Heero.

“I think I just woke up and you could have dragged my ass anywhere,” Duo growled. If they were calling him a blockhead, their friend probably had a forceful personality. He’d continue to act his normal obnoxious self until they started to react negatively. “So… where are we?” he repeated cheerfully.

“You’re the only ninja in the world that could blow himself up in the Forest of Death and then forget where he was,” the pink-haired girl said caustically.

Ninja? That caught Duo’s attention. It certainly explained hiding in trees with knives. The Forest of Death part was just as amusing to the stranded pilot. Only people training as ninja would come up with such a silly name. For all he knew, he had just landed in a theme park. After all, who besides a bunch of kids would play like they were ninja?

The strange area and people, he could make sense of, but his hair and clothes bothered him. He didn’t care who changed his clothes, or even that the outfit was ridiculous and would last roughly four seconds on a paintball field, but whoever had cut his hair was going to die.

“Now that you’re awake and you’ve finished asking stupid questions, can we go?” the girl asked.

“Sure,” Duo allowed, waiting for one of them to move. They just stared at him. “What?”

“Dobe,” the raven-haired boy muttered. The girl exploded.

“Damn it, Naruto! We’re following you!” When that statement earned her a blank look, she slapped him upside the head, almost knocking him out of the tree. “You said you found a way out. Now where is it?” Duo glanced around, seeing nothing but trees in every direction.

“I forgot,” Duo muttered, trying for his best idiot expression. It worked, causing the pink-haired girl to hit him again.

“Now what?” she asked, sitting down heavily. “Kakashi ditches us out in the middle of nowhere then times us to get out. Naruto leads us on a wild goose chase and almost blows us up. Now what?”

Kakashi? Ah, another name for the list. He was apparently Naruto, so now he just needed to figure out who his companions were. It was easier to fake an identity if he knew names. He’d just play along until he could escape to a safe house.

“Just start in the direction you were leading us and see if you remember,” the raven-haired boy suggested in his cold monotone.

“And which way was that?” Duo asked, looking around. Did they really intend to travel in the treetops? He supposed he could if necessary. It was like remotely like climbing on scaffolds in a way.

“That way, before you created a forty-foot crater,” the girl told him, pointing.

Shrugging, Duo lightly jogged down the enormous branch until it neared another, jumping for the other. He barely made it, wobbling a little on landing. Instantly, two sets of eyes were glaring holes in the back of his head.

“Are you okay?” the girl asked slowly. Duo paused. Apparently, Naruto was a bit more graceful than he was. He quickly struggled with a cover story. They had mentioned him almost blowing himself up and a forty-foot crater. Injury. Bingo. He offered them some nervous laughter.

“Guess I got hit harder than I thought.” The statement earned him two sighs.

“Sakura, stay with him. I’ll scout ahead,” the raven-haired boy said flatly, not sounding happy. The girl didn’t look very pleased, but she obeyed, shadowing very close-by in case he wavered again. The dark teenager vanished into the enormous trees.

“You can’t be mad that I’m hurt,” Duo huffed.

Recently identified Sakura sighed. “We’re mad because you walked into an obvious trap and got us more lost than ever. Now Sasuke has to clean up your mess. Again.”

Sasuke. At least now he had the names he needed to bluff with. Pity though that he didn’t have access to any of his own weapons or explosives. For lack of anything better to do while they slowly followed Sasuke, he searched through his pockets and pouches, curious to see what he did have. He located some throwing stars but passed those by, completely ignorant of how to use them. He settled for drawing one of those strange knives that looked to be balanced for throwing as well.

Blades seemed to be his only weapons. When he got back to civilization, he’d have to acquire a few guns and whip up some of his special explosives that the other guys refused to be in a twenty-mile radius of. Screw it. Why wait? He could forage some dangerous stuff off the ground if he had a little time.

Duo stopped in his travels and fished through his bags, looking for the rope he had passed by dismissively earlier. He looped it over the limb he was on and had already started to slide down when Sakura finally turned to see how far he’d fallen behind.

“Naruto! What are you doing?” she half yelled.

“I’ll be back up in a few minutes.”

“But most of the traps are down there,” she said in frustration. “That’s how you set off the last one!”

Ah, so that’s why they all in the trees, acting like overgrown squirrels. Duo had wondered a bit on that. Dropping to the dirt, he began circling the ground near the tree, looking for anything useful. Some of the plants he didn’t recognize, but a lot he did. He collected the random items, none of which Sakura could see, and tucked what he found into various jacket pockets. Nature based weapons weren’t his primary choice, but there was nothing else to work with. While nowhere near as effective as some of his toys, this way he’d at least have something on hand. G was something of a lunatic. The man could make a bomb out of a Twinkie and a fountain pen. And he had taught Duo everything he knew.

He was headed back to the rope when he saw something odd. At first he thought it was a boulder, but it seemed a little too structured, and what he thought had been moss was starting to look suspiciously like hair.

That’s when he noticed Sakura, motioning wildly and pointing emphatically at the boulder. He had wondered why she hadn’t been yelling at him to either hurry up or not trigger another explosion. Seeing that she finally had his attention, she began pointing to the rope and grabbed the top of it, bracing both of her feet and her back.

Slowly, so as to not attract the attention of whatever the boulder happened to be, Duo started to climb up the rope. He was astounded when Sakura started to pull in her end, surprised that she was strong enough to manage that. As soon as the limb was in reach, he latched on to it instead of the rope, taking the strain off Sakura. She ignored him and finished pulling up the rope, at one point deferring to latch onto his arm to certify that he was properly balanced.

“What is it?” Duo asked under his breath. He had been expecting an answer like ‘bear’ or ‘mountain lion’ or even ‘red-assed baboon.’ Her answer floored him.

“Spider,” she said, causing Duo to do a double take. Was that even possible?

Sakura started pulling at him demandingly and he followed willingly. If that chest-high boulder really was an arachnid, it could probably climb, much better than they could. He had never heard of such a thing before, but while he was last in a new place, he might as well err on the side of caution. Fighting with a car-sized spider was just out.

Treetop running was still difficult and Duo kept staggering on the longer jumps. Several times, he wouldn’t have made the leaps had Sakura not been dragging him.

“What is wrong with you?” Sakura yelled, her voice partially carried away by the wind whipping by them. “You’re never this slow!”

Slow? Slow! Where the hell was he and what was with these people? Now he was more determined to secure some sort of weapon more advanced than a knife.

Though by no means exhausted, Duo was fairly winded and beginning to tire when they finally reached where Sasuke had stopped to wait for them. The raven-haired youth was staring hard at Duo when they arrived, alerting the pilot that he was doing something severely out of character. If he had to guess, Naruto was in better physical shape than he was. He bared his teeth in a threatening manner.

“Bite me!” Duo snapped, glaring. “I’m injured!”

“You should heal more quickly than that,” Sasuke said flatly.

“You sit in an explosion that creates a forty-foot crater. See if you’re still moving,” Duo countered. Okay, he had just learned something new about the blond he was imitating. Along with being in better shape, he apparently recovered more rapidly than the standard person. Duo’s attitude and something similar to Heero’s physique. In the future, he either had to avoid being hurt or better conceal any injuries or weariness.

The dark glare only intensified. With a few short steps, Sasuke approached and pinned Duo to the trunk. Worried, Duo tried to fight him off but was overpowered immediately, both of his wrists caught above his head in one of Sasuke’s hands. With his free hand, the raven teen yanked up his jacket and shirt to bare his stomach. Duo refrained from panicking, praying that the other boy wasn’t looking for some reaction he wouldn’t have. He didn’t really understand when Sasuke placed his palm flat against his abdomen, confused by the seemingly harmless gesture.

Duo understood suddenly and almost violently when he felt a burst of heat rush into his abdomen. Liquid fire swept across him, not painful but extremely intense. His pulse almost doubled and his breath seized in his throat. Wide-eyed, he lowered his gaze to his stomach, tracing glowing red lines with a good deal of incredulity.

Something *inhuman* stirred inside him and he reflexively tamped it down. Duo almost did snap then, shock overwhelming his mind. He was host to a demon, and it wasn’t Shinigami!

He was so preoccupied that he didn’t notice Sasuke release him with a satisfied grunt and he certainly didn’t hear Sakura’s worried inquiry if he was okay. Shakily, Duo turned his consciousness inward, pressing his mind toward the new force he had to contend with, at least for now.

*Hello?* Duo called out silently to the roused force within him.

*Miserable mortal,* a deep rumbling voice answered. *Why are you here and where is Naruto?*

Duo only then realized that he was using his own appearance in his mental projection of himself. He edged towards some metal bars containing something powerful.

*I don’t know how I got here or who Naruto is,* Duo said, standing clear of the cage. From what he knew from experience, if it was locked up, it was dangerous. *I’m just trying to get back to my body and I’m sure Naruto is trying to do the same.*

A set of glowing red eyes appeared behind the bars, narrowing at him speculatively. He seemed to be thinking. A growl started to resound through the cage just before he lunged for the bars, the massive fox fighting to free himself. Duo automatically tightened his mind to hold the demon in place. The nine-tailed fox hissed death and took a step back, looking remotely stunned that Duo had managed to restrain him so quickly and skillfully.

*Who are you, brat?*

*I am Shinigami,* Duo said firmly, taking his own demon’s name.

*Shinigami…* the fox mused slowly. *His host, anyways. You and Naruto are brothers of a sort.*

Duo blinked at the assessment and waited docilely, allowing the fox to think at his leisure. The demon obviously understood that Duo knew how to stand up for him and even seemed to know Shinigami personally. He waited out the demon’s pondering.

*Very well, host of Shinigami. I will find a way to correct what you two imbeciles have done.* He turned as if to walk away, hesitating a step to look over his shoulder at Duo. *My name is Kyuubi. Tell Shinigami that I said hi.*

With that, Duo was flung out of the dark halls containing Kyuubi. The sudden force against him after his already prolonged activities of the day, including containing and speaking to the fox, left him in a gray haze. Conscious but not, Duo simply gave up and let the peaceful blackness claim him.

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To Be Continued…
This is only going to get worse for all parties involved here. This is threatening to be a very long fic, so encourage me and R&R!